Vanished
by doodlingcubes
Summary: Sequel to Withered - Things were supposed to be calm after a storm, right? Things were supposed to become okay and stay okay. But this is definitely not an "okay" scenario. Friends are missing again, and before, that didn't add to the problem. Now that is the problem, and things will only go downhill from there. That's how this works, isn't it?
1. Report

**hi! uh, so this is technically the sequel to my first fic Withered, buut it's only really gonna reference it sometimes, so you don't technically have to read that first. this story still has the nervous Jesse from Withered, so there's that too. let's get on with it; hope you enjoy!**

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Life was simple. Well, about as simple as it could get, being literal heroes. It was by no means simple compared to life before, but that didn't necessarily mean it wasn't fun.

It had been nearly a year since the Fall of the Wither Storm. Jesse had adjusted to being a leader surprisingly well for how adamant she had been about them all being equal on the team. She still stuck to the idea, but everyone knew that if that were really the case, they wouldn't have lasted a month as a functioning team. Petra was still adjusting to being on a team in the first place, and Axel, as well as Olivia, were just working on upping their skills to be "just as capable as Jesse and Petra in battle."

For the most part, they had been taking jobs from citizens all over the place, and going treasure hunting. The Order Hall(which they had helped build once everything else was taken care of) had to have an extra room added for them, which was filled with random treasures, a variety of posters from Redstonia and Jesse's few EnderCon posters on the walls. And, because none of them were good at coming up with names, they ended up just calling it the Treasure Room.

Jesse had put Reuben in there. She had framed the little porkchop he had left behind and put him there with a poster and a flower pot, with a flower she cared for daily. At first it seemed to be a little pointless, possibly even unhealthy for her to hold on for so long. But they discovered after a while that the days she was too tired to water the flower in the pot were her worst. So they let her keep using her little coping mechanism. And she had gotten a good deal better.

They'd all taken charge of their own things both around town and in other areas. Petra had ended up the head of the city Guard there in Taivas. (The name had been decided on while they were gathering people from the camps scattered around; Olivia could never remember what it meant, but it had some sort of meaning related to the defeat of the Wither Storm.) Jesse was pretty much the equivalent of a mayor in the sense that she was usually the one to look over a lot of the major papers and complaints. Axel wasn't in charge of anything in Taivas, but he did some sort of second-in-command position in Boom Town. Olivia took care of any machinery issues and requests that came up(there weren't many, so it wasn't often) and…

Well, she had more or less been dropped into the leader position in Redstonia.

She had only gone to help with the rebuilding process not long after the Order Hall had been built. After working along with several residents, someone- she couldn't quiter remember who; it may have been Calvin- approached her and more-or-less told her she was going to take Ellegaard's place, seeing as the renowned inventor was no longer there. She had agreed to the task, though she told Jesse upon return that she _really_ wished she hadn't. She didn't feel qualified for the position in any shape or form, but they seemed content with her in charge there, so she didn't really want to back out on them.

That said, one downside of it was the trips she would have to make throughout the months. She'd found checking in once a week for any possible paperwork there or issues around the other areas of Redstonia to be the easiest on both her and Calvin, who had taken up his previous position and was in charge of what he could handle while she wasn't there. On occasion, someone would end up in Taivas to retrieve her if there was anything major, but for the most part, she simply went once a week at the least. More if she had nothing to do with the others.

And, well, coming back wasn't usually much of anything either. This time, though, she had just gotten up to the Hall doors when they opened from the other side, and Jesse nearly ran right into her. Considering it was still early, Jesse was still trying to pull one of the straps of her dungarees over her shoulder to clip it to the front as she walked, and wasn't entirely expecting Olivia to be right in the doorway.

"Oh-" Jesse took a step back in surprise, taking a second to analyze what was happening, before offering a small smile of greeting. "Hey. You're back early."

"Early?" Olivia placed a hand on her hip. "I was supposed to be back two days ago."

"W-well," Jesse rubbed the back of her neck, "I meant it's kinda early i-in the morning."

Olivia just shrugged, shifting the small bag hanging on her shoulder. "You're out and about pretty early, too. Is something up?"

"Someone's complaining about Ivor again. So I gotta go make sure he didn't climb onto a roof again or something." Jesse shrugged slightly, finally managing to clip her strap shut. Olivia blinked, then shifted the bag off of her shoulder and reached past Jesse to drop it inside.

"I'll come with you. Not quite ready to sit down with papers again." Jesse nodded, stepping fully outside and shutting the door behind her. She stepped past Olivia and lead the way back down the pathway to the main road.

"So, how're things in Redstonia? Like you said, you're two days later than usual." Jesse glanced up at her, one hand moving to fiddle at the amulet-shaped charm of the necklace around her neck. Olivia briefly forgot where she had gotten that, then remembered she had been the one to give it to her while they were in Soren's End fortress.

"They're alright, I guess." Olivia shrugged lightly. "Couple of people are still looking to blame me for Ellegaard, but for the most part, there were just a bunch of malfunctioning machines and complaints to take care of."

Jesse hummed lightly as they reached the end of the pathway, stepping out onto the main road. "Well, I guess it could be worse."

"Yeah, it definitely could." Olivia followed her off of the path, nodding slightly before glancing around.

Very few people were milling about this early in the morning. Most of the little shops lining the main street were either closed, or in the process of opening. One or two- bakeries, if she remembered correctly, and produce shops- were already open and taking customers. None of the people she saw around the area she recognized- not by name, at least.

"So, uh…" She glanced at Jesse, who was starting towards one of the side roads. "Who exactly did you hear about Ivor from? There aren't many people around."

Jesse shrugged. "One of the shopkeepers. She said he was causing trouble somewhere over here."

Olivia glanced at the area ahead, then looked back to Jesse. "How exactly did she manage to tell you if you were still dealing with your straps when I ran into you?"

"I've been trying to get that strap for an hour. I gave up for a while." Jesse shrugged again, grinning sheepishly. She opened her mouth to continue, when a very faint, very familiar series of shouts sounded from roughly a block away. The two shared a glance, then started towards the noise.

The shops they passed were no busier than the ones on the main street of town. A couple of the stalls were obviously opened, but abandoned by their owners, likely to see what the commotion was around the corner. Olivia noted one moving stand, one covered in fireworks, was still being run, but the man running it looked all but happy to be pushing it into place this early.

The yelling got louder and louder as they approached the corner. Olivia shot a glance at Jesse just before they turned it. "Two iron says he's on a roof."

"I'm not taking that bet," was Jesse's only response before they turned the corner.

The road they turned onto was one of the shorter ones, leading to a large park at the edge of town. The park seemed to be where Ivor was, seeing as there was a crowd at the edge of said park. A few of the shop owners and stall owners were still in their respective places, simply watching the morning entertainment from their stores.

"Too bad. You would've won." Olivia shook her head as they started towards the park.

Ivor, in fact, was not on one of the roofs of the shops like either of them had anticipated, but was on what seemed to be a self-made platform in the park, a bucket full of something glowing red in his hands as he shouted down at the townsfolk.

It wasn't necessarily an uncommon scene, but it definitely wasn't common enough to not look incredibly weird.

As they reached the back edge of the crowd, Iovr took notice of them, jolting to his feet and nearly dropping his bucket of lava in the process. "Jesse! You're up early!"

And, of course, he seemed to act like he wasn't so close to accidentally pouring lava on the twenty people at the base of his platform.

"Ivor, what are you doing?" Olivia folded her arms as she called up. He glanced at her, then at the bucket in his hand.

"I was _trying_ to give our little park a new fountain, but these people seem to dislike the idea! I only wanted to give a little gift to the community!" Ivor explained, earning a few irritated groans or shouts from the crowd.

Jesse glanced at the platform, then at Ivor. "Ivor, putting lava in an area where kids play isn't a-a good idea."

Ivor folded his arms. "Why not? They know not to touch it!"

Olivia bit her tongue before she could respond with "not really." Jesse beat her to a better one.

"E-even if they don't _mean_ to touch it, they could still run into it by accident." Jesse lightly folded her arms. "I-it isn't safe."

Ivor scoffed, then shifted his weight. "What is it with you people being against fountains?"

"We aren't against _normal_ fountains," Olivia pointed out. "You know, with _water_."

"Bah! Those are no fun!" Ivor pocketed his bucket nonetheless and quickly began taking his platform down. The crowd finally began to disperse, and Jesse relaxed, letting out a small sigh.

"That was easier than I thought it'd be," Olivia hummed mildly. Jesse nodded in agreement.

As Ivor started taking the stand below the platform down, he suddenly froze, then turned and jumped down from his perch, leaving the majority of the stand still up. "Oh! Jesse!" He darted over to them excitedly. "I've found something you and the others will be interested in!"

Jesse blinked in surprise, then shared a glance with Olivia. "Really? What'd you find?"

"I'll tell you all together. That way I can show you the maps." Ivor started to walk off, likely towards the Hall, but Olivia stepped in his path before he could.

"Not before you take down the rest of your podium." He made a face at her, then glanced at Jesse. She nodded slightly, and he sighed.

"Fine," he grumbled. Ivor turned and went back to the remnants of his attempted fountain, starting work on taking the rest of it down.

Olivia eyed the remaining bit of the podium, picturing what it had looked like before in her head silently. Ivor had perched himself on it, but didn't seem to have a way down.

"Ivor, how exactly were you planning on placing the lava up there without burning?" She glanced at him as she spoke. Ivor turned and glanced at her briefly, then reached into his pocket and pulled an orange potion from it.

Potion of Fire Resistance, if she remembered correctly. He made plenty of those for Petra, who was in the Nether more often than anyone else they knew.

"I had this, of course." He shoved it back into his pocket. "What do you take me for?"

"Someone who can wake up an entire town at seven in the morning with a bucket of lava," Olivia responded. She wasn't necessarily wrong, but she had a teasing tone in her voice. Jesse grinned, then tried to hide it behind a hand. Ivor glared at Olivia, then finished taking down the podium.

"Shut up." She snorted at that. "Anyways," he turned and moved back over to them, dusting off his hands as he left the only evidence of his stunt as a section of crushed grass where the podium had been, "let's go talk about this treasure I've found."

Jesse nodded, and they started back towards the Hall. Ivor was quick to end up ahead of them, practically bouncing on his toes in excitement. Olivia rolled her eyes in amusement and followed after him.

It was a little weird to think about how quickly his character could change from irritable and serious to excited and childlike. Not just between right then and the Wither Storm ordeal, but within the span of about ten seconds. She knew from experience that he could go from excitable to serious the second he finds out one of them is injured in any slightly major way. He had been surprisingly frustrated with her when he found out she didn't have work gloves to use while working on her machines, and she'd ended up receiving a pair from him within an hour. Not that she could reverse the damage it had done, but still.

It hadn't been the only thing to cause any and all feeling in her hands and arms to vanish; no, that honor was shared between her work and the Withersickness.

She had learned from that little nagging spree that redstone being activated on bare skin would damage nerves, and she had done that plenty of times already. He pointed out that the Withersickness had simply sped up the process for it. Now, she couldn't feel anything in either arm all the way up to just below her shoulders. She could still move them, thank god, but she couldn't tell when she did. She had dropped things and grabbed things and accidentally cut her hand on a sharp piece or burned it on an overheated piston plenty of times now.

Honestly, she thought _she_ was bad when it came to "mothering" the others. Ivor gave her a run for her money.

Despite it, they'd all been suspicious of him for a good while after the dust had settled. For good reason, obviously; he'd nearly destroyed the world. But Jesse had been adamant about giving him a second chance, and eventually, they had grown to trust him. Somewhat. Even the townsfolk had left him alone about his mistake, and now were upset with him over his lava antics instead.

They reached the Hall's pathway again and made their way up it; for the time being, Ivor was staying with them, but he had been talking about building himself a house for a little while. They stepped inside, Ivor instantly running off to get whatever maps and books he needed for this, while Olivia picked up her bag and she and Jesse moved further inside, towards the kitchen, where they knew Petra and Axel would be at this point.

They were right; Petra was seated at the table with a mug and a piece of toast, ashes in her hair proving she had been on another trade run. Axel was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his own coffee mug in his hands and everything on him disheveled, proving he had woken up within the last ten minutes.

"Hey," Petra looked up from her mug as they entered the room. "Where've you two been?"

"Ivor was trying to make a lava fountain in the park." Olivia hooked her bag on the chair across from her and sitting down. Jesse moved into the seat beside her.

Petra groaned, hanging her head and rubbing the back of her neck. "Classic Ivor. I might as well set patrols earlier just for keeping him out of trouble this early in the morning." She lifted her head again, brushing her hair over her shoulder. Olivia snorted.

"Honestly? He'd get past them somehow. I wouldn't bother." She shook her head, leaning her arms on the table.

Petra snorted. "I guess you've got a point." Her hair fell over her shoulders again, causing a few flakes of ashes to fall out of it, one of them landing in her coffee. Petra grumbled at that. "Damn it."

"Where did you go this time around?" Jesse shifted in her seat.

"Some town North of Mescue. I forget the name." She shrugged mildly. Jesse nodded. "Got an emerald and a hunk of amethyst from it."

"Nice," Jesse grinned.

"What's in the bag?" She glanced at Axel, then at her bag. "Did you get something cool and take two days to get back because of it?"

Olivia looked at him again flatly. "It's paperwork. I don't think that's worth calling 'cool' unless it magically disappears."

Petra started to say something, but was interrupted by two heavy books and a rolled-up map hitting the table, nearly sending her coffee flying. She managed to pick up her mug in time, keeping it from going everywhere. Ivor stood over what he'd dropped, placing his hands on his hips and grinning excitedly.

"I've found something."

Olivia lifted an eyebrow. "Really now?"

He made a face at her sarcasm and reached for the rolled up parchment. "An ancient treasure is supposedly hidden in a temple in a jungle about a day's travel from here." He unrolled the map, using the books to hold down the edges as Axel approached to get a better look. "No one knows for sure if it actually exists."

"Where'd you hear about this one?" Petra glanced at the alchemist.

"I've been studying these books for ages now. They detail an image of a temple in a forest. I've heard from travelling salesmen about which jungle it is." He pointed to an area on the map, which was of an area Northwest of them. It had their town on it and everything. "According to them, they saw it about here." He circled an area in the center of the indicated jungle, which was already circled in red. "I don't know if it really exists, but if it does, there should be a treasure hidden inside."

Olivia hummed, then glanced at Jesse. "I think it sounds cool."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I-I think we should check it out." She looked between Axel and Petra. "What about you guys? You in?"

"Heck yeah I am," Axel grinned, placing his mug on the table.

"Count me in." Petra grinned, standing up.

"Sweet. We'll get supplies and head out as soon as we're ready." Jesse nodded, then stood up. Olivia nodded in agreement.

"Wonderful!" Ivor bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Oh, Ivor?" Petra, who had started towards the hallway, paused in the doorway and turned to look at him.

Ivor turned to look at her. "Yes?"

She smirked lightly. "Stay out of trouble, or I'll kick your ass."

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 **AN: aand there we have it! updates'll probably be a bit sporadic for a while since i have school and things to deal with too, but i'll try to not have month-long gaps like Withered did! sorry about those, ahah :'3c**

 **until next time!**


	2. Temple

It had been way easier to find the alleged temple than they'd expected.

Then again, finding a glowing building at night wasn't that hard anyways. It had been pretty close to the outer edge of the jungle, in a pretty different location than Ivor had told them. Not that any of them were complaining; that made the job easier. They had set up camp at the edge of the jungle, then made their way towards the temple, splitting up strategically as they did. After all, there was no telling what kind of monsters they'd find; jungles weren't known for safety, after all.

And, as they had anticipated, there had been monsters. Lots of them, at that. There were hundreds of zombies, skeletons, creepers, and spiders, all milling about and looking for something to fight. Somehow, though, they all managed to miss the humans all spreading themselves out around the edge of their territory.

Olivia was hidden behind a machine she had thrown together at the edge of the clearing, managing the feat quickly enough to not be noticed by the mass of mobs. Again, she had no idea how they were so oblivious.

They had standard strategies for this; they would circle the area they needed to, and when Jesse gave a signal, usually consisting of just beginning to attack, they'd start fighting off the monsters. She rarely got into the fray, staying back with machines and traps and usually pretending to try and one-up them. Half of the time, she actually did so, but no one really cared too much.

Her thoughts were broken by what she had been watching for; Jesse. The brunette was slicing easily through zombies that came her way, her sword- heavily enchanted like all of their weapons, courtesy of Ivor- needing no more than a hit to take them out. As the group began to thin due to this, Olivia placed a button on the dispenser at eye level, keeping an eye on the clearing and waiting for a good time to press it.

Jesse stopped in the middle of the clearing, suddenly tensing and turning around. Two skeletons at the edge of the clearing had taken notice of her, and drew back, aiming straight for the brunette. Before she could really react, though, a shout echoed down from above.

"Look out!" Petra had gotten into a smaller jungle tree, perched in the branches. She let out a cry as she jumped down, landing squarely on one of the skeletons and knocking the other towards Jesse. Jesse easily knocked it away with her sword, causing it to poof into smoke and leave an arrow in its place.

"Thanks." She nodded to Petra as she ran up, who grinned and nodded in return.

"Hey Jesse!" Across the clearing, Axel had gotten ahold of two zombies, holding them firmly in a headlock in each arm. "Check this out!" Jesse and Petra both turned to him, Petra quirking an eyebrow. Axel began squeezing the zombies harder, causing both of them to flash red. "And three, two, one, _pop_!" As he yelled the last words, the zombies disintegrated into smoke; Axel straightened, sending a lopsided grin Jesse's way. "Pretty cool, right?" He snickered a bit, then flexed somewhat dramatically, completely ignorant of the zombie moving up behind him. "You can try it, too, if you-"

"Duck!' Jesse hadn't even finished speaking when she suddenly darted towards him. He flinched in surprise, then glanced behind him. Upon seeing the zombie, which was _way_ too close for comfort, he ducked down low enough that Jesse could jump up, roll across his back, and slam her sword into the zombie, knocking it into a wall and causing it to puff into white smoke.

Axel straightened, glancing at the wall, then at Jesse, before breaking into an excited grin. Olivia moved out from behind her machine, folding her arms and leaning against it as the remaining monsters began to line up. "Dude, you're getting pretty good at this," Axel practically cheered, holding up a hand to Jesse. Jesse grinned lightly back, returning the high five.

Olivia rolled her eyes lightly as the others glanced towards the remaining mobs. "You guys are working _way_ too hard!" She grinned as she called to them, catching their attention as she muffled a laugh and rammed her elbow into the button, instantly sending arrows flying out into the remaining group of monsters. It didn't take long; within seconds, an arrow wedged itself into the head of the final mob- a zombie- and the machine turned off. Olivia began hauling the thing apart as Jesse smiled lightly, barely hiding an eyeroll.

"You're always looking to one-up us, a-aren't you?" She shook her head slightly, seemingly oblivious to a stray zombie moving up behind her. Olivia retrieved the last dispenser as Axel opened his mouth to say something, but Jesse silently shifted the sword in her hand to face backwards and jabbed it through the zombie's torso before he could say anything. Axel closed his mouth again.

Olivia trotted over with her materials stowed away as Jesse and the others put away their weapons- Axel was an exception; he used his fists- and moved to get a better look at the temple.

"Wow," Jesse breathed, scanning over the temple as Olivia reached them. "This is one seriously cool temple."

"Yeah, points for Ivor, I guess." Petra nodded, placing her hands on her hips. "This was a good tip."

There was a moment where none of them said anything, all of them taking in the sight of the temple. After that moment, Olivia placed a hand on her hip, glancing at the back of Jesse's head. "So? What's the plan?"

Jesse took a moment to respond. "Easy. We go in there and get the treasure Ivor told us about."

Axel pumped his fist into the air excitedly. "Treasure!" There was a pause as the rest of them glanced back at him, Petra and Jesse sharing a glance while Olivia fought down a grin of amusement. Axel lowered his fist a bit. "What? C'mon, show some excitement, we're treasure hunting!"

There was another, shorter pause in response to this, before Petra shook her head, her own amused grin fighting its way onto her face. "Alright, on three." Axel grinned wider, and Olivia rolled her eyes, giving in to the amused grin that forced its way onto her lips. "One, two, three-"

"Treasure!" Axel cheered again, though this time, he was accompanied by his teammates. They weren't nearly as enthusiastic, and their fists only made it to be parallel to their heads, but it seemed to satisfy him, as he nodded to Jesse with an excited grin still plastered on his face. She smiled lightly in response, then motioned to the group before turning and taking off towards the temple. Petra followed first, Olivia close behind her and Axel taking up the rear. They all hopped easily up the short staircase and into the temple, where they all pulled themselves to a stop so they could look around in awe.

The inside of the temple seemed a lot more open than the outside let off. There was a large three-foot-deep indent in the center of the room, leaving a walkway around the edge. Across from the door, as well as adjacent to the door on either side, were odd fountain-like lava channels, though the lava itself was blocked off by stone and sticky pistons. The lava was the only thing lighting up the room, so it was light enough to see, though still dimly lit.

Olivia wandered to the left side of the room, watching the channel in that wall thoughtfully. Axel followed her, while Petra and Jesse found their way to the other end of the room. She took notice very quickly of a lever on the wall, and once she was close enough, she pushed it upwards. The pistons in the channel opened for about a second, then closed again. She made a face, stepping back and placing a hand on her mouth in thought.

She had a slight feeling that Ivor would love this place.

"So much for treasure," Petra spoke up from the other side of the room; Olivia glanced back to spot her approaching Jesse. "This cupboard is bare."

Jesse shrugged mildly in response. "Y-you know how these work. There's never treasure out in the open. A-and if there is, it's way too easy." She glanced around briefly. "L-let's fan out and search the place." Petra nodded in response to this, moving towards the far corner. Olivia turned back to the channel, while Axel sat down against a small hunk of rubble nearby.

Olivia glanced back at the other two channels, quietly trying to put the pieces together in her head. There were three channels, each of them having a space in the floor where the lava would likely flow through under the floor towards the indent. Maybe that had to fill up with lava for something to happen? She didn't see any openings in the sides on the other side, so maybe not. Either way, the fact that there were three seemed to lead to a puzzle. Maybe they just needed to flip the levers and open the channels in a certain order?

Jesse was already on top of it, moving towards the channel in the wall parallel to Olivia. She flipped the lever easily, and the channel opened. Olivia half expected it to close again, but it stayed open, allowing the lava to flow down and into the floor. Jesse watched the opening in the floor for a moment, then nodded, satisfied. She made her way over to the channel across from the door, reaching for the lever. As soon as she flipped it, the lava began to flow down, and the channel stayed open. The first one, though, snapped shut, cutting off the lava. Jesse made a face at it, then moved over to where Olivia was standing, passing her to flip the third lever. The channel didn't stay open this time either, and the still-open middle channel snapped shut again.

"Huh…" Jesse tapped her lip thoughtfully for a moment, then turned and glanced at Olivia. "I-I guess that wasn't the pattern."

Olivia folded her arms and shrugged. "I think you were onto something with the one across the room being first." She glanced back at the far channel, then looked back to Jesse. "I tried that one first and it didn't work."

Jesse hummed. "Maybe…" She trailed off, looking at the channel, before looking to Petra, who was leaning against another hunk of rubble on the far end of the room, sharpening her sword. "H-hey, Petra?" The redhead looked up at her. "Can you hit that lever?" Jesse pointed to the channel at the opposite end of the room.

Petra followed her motion, then shrugged and stood. "Sure." She trotted over to the lever and flipped it, opening the channel again. She glanced at Jesse again. "Like that?"

"Y-yeah, thanks." Jesse nodded to her. Petra returned it, then moved back to her rubble to continue working on her sword. Jesse turned to the channel beside them again, flipping the lever experimentally. The channel opened, then shut, and the channel across the room shut again. Jesse sighed, turning to look at Olivia. "D'you have any ideas?"

Olivia tapped her lip in thought. "I'd suggest trying to flip all three levers at once, but considering that one stays open, I don't think that'll work." She glanced over at the other channels, then shrugged and turned to Jesse again. "You were onto something with that first one; beyond that, it's trial and error. But, I bet if you get all of the channels open, something cool will happen."

Jesse nodded, folding her arms thoughtfully. There was a moment where no one spoke, before Jesse glanced at Olivia again, this time with a mild, friendly smile. "How's treasure hunting treating you?"

Olivia hummed lightly before actually answering. "If you asked me when we first started out as the New Order, I would've probably said that I didn't like it. But this has been really fun. Which is kind of surprising, honestly. It's definitely easier to get your hands on things to build with now."

Jesse nodded slowly. "A-anything you're hoping to find?"

"Uh, not really." Olivia shrugged. "I'm working on something that could use a couple more dispensers, but those aren't the _hardest_ things to make myself." She thought for a moment. "Cocoa beans might be cool though."

Jesse blinked. "Why cocoa beans?"

"There's lots of stuff you can do with 'em. Most of it is dying things." Olivia glanced at her. "I've been thinking about trying to use some in an automatic farm or something. Then we wouldn't have to wait around for Lukas to make cookies, since he always seems to have some."

"True," Jesse agreed, amusement heavy in her voice.

"I like the sound of that," Axel piped up from nearby. "I personally want emeralds so I can finish that floor." He paused, face falling. "I think I should've not left the hole really close to the door like I did."

"Yeah, well, now you know for next time," Olivia responded mildly. "Y'know, if you ever actually try this again."

"Don't underestimate the power of impulsive decisions and little self-control." Axel grinned at her, and she snorted and rolled her eyes. Jesse smiled to hold down giggles, turning to look at the channel again. She then turned to glance at the first one, then trotted across the room and hit the lever to open up the first channel.

After examining the other two channels, Jesse moved to the middle channel and hit its lever. The middle channel opened, but like the last time, the first channel snapped shut again. Jesse hesitated, then moved back over to the first channel and tried opening it again. It stayed open, surprisingly, as did the middle channel. With a satisfied grin, she trotted back over and opened the last channel, which stayed open as well.

After a moment, once the lava started to flow, the floor began to rumble. Olivia threw her hands out in surprise to try and keep her balance, and Axel pushed himself to sit straight up in surprise. Petra had jolted to her feet, and Jesse had grabbed ahold of the wall.

The indent in the floor suddenly jolted open a bit, stopping for only a moment before jolting again, opening bit by bit in a repeated process. Slowly, they all became accustomed to the jolting, slowly lowering their arms, Axel pushing to his feet. As the floor fully opened, they all approached to look into the new opening.

A spiralling wooden staircase circled three different lava falls, each seeming connected to one of the channels. The bottom was a ways down, though not so much as to be too far to see the floor. The walls were patterned with weird egg-like shapes all the way down as far as Olivia could tell. There seemed to be something at the bottom, as the walls didn't go all the way down. Vines covered almost all of the walls.

Jesse shared a glance with her, then with Petra and Axel, before starting down the steps. Olivia moved up to the staircase, allowing her a few steps of space before following.

"I think I would've been disappointed if the floor _didn't_ open up into a dark, creepy passageway," Axel commented. Petra started down the steps after Olivia, and Axel took up the rear.

"It kinda reminds me of when you guys found the Order's temple," the redhead added lightly.

"How do you know what happened enough to make a connection like that?" Axel questioned.

Petra snorted. "I've heard stories."

"That feels like it was a million years ago or something," Jesse spoke up, shaking her head. "W-we've done a lot since then."

"And to think…" Olivia grinned lightly in reminisce. "That was just the beginning."

"Yeah," Axel responded. "That was before we'd fought Wither Storms, hung out with Endermen, reunited the Order…" He trailed off, then sighed. "So crazy."

They reached the bottom easily, Jesse beginning to glance around as she reached the end of the staircase. Olivia followed her off of the steps, glancing around as well. The lava falls fell into a pit that stretched past the floor they found themselves on, and Olivia notices spires acting like supports to hold up the ceiling. She couldn't see if there was anything on the other side of the lava, but Jesse could, and she spotted something quickly.

"Bingo," she called. Olivia followed her gaze to a set of chests on the other side of the pit, all in a sort of cross formation and facing away from each other. The group trotted over to them, Jesse humming lightly as she moved to the one closest to the lava. Olivia approached the one to her right, while Petra found the one across from her and Axel took the last one.

They opened their chests almost in sync, and Olivia took a moment to examine hers' contents. It was mostly empty; the first thing she saw was a wooden shovel. She reached in and grabbed it, pulling it out so she could examine it.

"Oh, there's a cake in here." She glanced over at Jesse as the other pulled a cake from her chest. Olivia almost made a face of disgust, but then noted that the cake looked surprisingly fresh for however long it had been down there.

"Aw, lucky," Axel nearly whined. Jesse glanced at him, quirking an eyebrow as Olivia went back to digging through her chest after pocketing the shovel. "It's just… I really love cake."

"That thing is probably hundreds of years old, Axel," Petra pointed out. "If it looks as good as it does, it's probably not real."

Jesse hummed. "No, i-it feels pretty real." She glanced at Axel. "Y-you can have it, if you want."

Axel perked up. "Really?" Jesse nodded, standing up and moving over to offer the treat to him. "Oh man, oh man, thank you!" Jesse smiled and nodded as Axel took the cake, pocketing it quickly as she returned to her chest.

Olivia pulled out a handful of cocoa beans as Jesse retrieved a pumpkin. After mumbling something about Endermen, Jesse started to reach for something else, then froze. Olivia pocketed the cocoa beans and glanced at Jesse, shutting the now-empty chest in front of her.

"What'd you find?" She pushed up as Jesse did, moving over to look over her shoulder.

In Jesse's hands was what looked like a set of flint and steel, except it was glowing blue with some sort of crazy enchantment.

* * *

 **AN: w heeze its 2 am**

 **sorry about the wait, school is hell**

 **until next time!**


	3. Blaze Rods

"What are you guys talking about-?" Axel cut himself off as he approached Jesse's other side, eyes widening and a grin spreading quickly across his face. "Whoa! That looks super cool!"

Petra approached, peering over both Olivia's and Jesse's shoulders to see. Considering she was over half a foot taller than them, it wasn't necessarily hard for her. "I've never seen flint and steel like that before," she commented lightly.

Jesse peered at the tools, then glanced at Olivia. "I-is it some kind of enchantment?"

Olivia pondered this for a moment; she'd seen different enchantments on tools and such before, so this should've been an easy identification. The problem was, as far as she knew, enchantment glows were never this bright. They were faint, just bright enough to be noticeable, and only tinted in color. This set was bright in both glow and color, so it almost didn't seem like an enchantment at all.

"I don't know," Olivia folded her arms, examining the glow carefully. "I've seen people put an Unbreaking enchantment on a flint and steel before, but that's not Unbreaking."

"You could give it a shot and find out," Petra offered. Jesse glanced briefly at her, then at the flint and steel again.

She kneeled down, pressing the tools together. "O-okay… Flint and steel, do your thing."

The second her wrist flicked to strike a spark, a bright blue glow emitted from the tools. It lit up the area around them a good ways, then faded quickly. Olivia blinked away the spots in her vision that came with it, straightening a bit in surprise.

"W-well, um, I've never seen flint and steel do that before…" Jesse stood up again, blinking away the spots in her own vision. Olivia nodded mildly in agreement.

"Uh-oh," Petra muttered, pulling their attention from the flint and steel. Olivia glanced back at her, noting the fact that she was looking at something past the stairs, in the odd cavern past the stairway upwards. She followed her gaze to the cavern, only to spot exactly what had elicited the cautious alert.

Zombies. Hundreds of them, all stumbling slowly towards them. Olivia realized with a start that they were on all sides, and if they didn't run for it, they'd never get out of there. Luckily for her, everyone else had the same thought, as Jesse turned and started for the stairs, the rest of them hot on her heels.

The upside was that they weren't as cornered as they could've been. The downside was that they had taken too long to run for the stairs, as zombies were already swarming the space in front of them. They lurched to a stop, backing up against each other. Olivia grabbed for her bow, retrieving an arrow and nocking it quickly. She heard the scrapes of swords being drawn beside and behind her as Jesse and Petra both retrieved their weapons, and she felt Axel tense and lift his hands defensively on her other side.

"Looks like some monsters have a death wish," Petra muttered, grin evident in her voice.

"So what's the plan?" Axel turned to glance over Olivia at Jesse. "If you ask me, it seems like a good time for a 'secret handshake'!"

"Yeah," Olivia agreed quickly, "so let's use the Redstone Rap. Obviously!"

"Uh, I think you mean Warrior Whip." Petra responded matter-of-factly. "Obviously."

Axel shifted to look over at the redhead. "Oh, come on! It was _my_ idea!" He shifted again to face the oncoming zombies. "Let's do the Griefer Grab!"

Olivia opened her mouth to respond to that, but realized with a start that Jesse wasn't speaking up, and the zombies were getting way too close for comfort. She turned to nudge a response from her, only to find Jesse wasn't even there. "What the-?"

"Hey!" She looked up in the direction of the voice, spotting the cobblestone pathway before she spotted Jesse standing on top of it. "Come on! Before they block you off!" Petra turned and darted up onto the bridge, Axel and Olivia just behind her.

"You could've said something," Axel pointed out. Jesse rubbed an arm embarrassedly.

"I tried to, b-but I didn't want to interrupt you guys." She smiled lightly, almost warily. "Y-you didn't hear me anyways."

Olivia shook her head mildly, placing a hand on her hip as she put away her weapon. "You wouldn't have interrupted anything important. We were just arguing about handshakes."

Jesse shrugged, then shot a glance below them at the zombies. She motioned to them, then hurried across the rest of the bridge to the stairs. The rest of them followed close behind, hurrying up the steps after her.

They had only made it around a couple of turns when the wall opened ahead of them, causing them to lurch to a stop. Zombies lumbered out from the opening, instantly turning and approaching Jesse and Axel. Olivia glanced down the steps to find the zombies coming out of a hole in the wall further down the stairs and starting up them. She let out a groan, grabbing her bow and an arrow.

"Ugh, all these mobs! Where does it end?!" She pulled back, taking aim at one of the closest zombies and releasing, sending the arrow flying straight into its head. The zombie fell back, knocking several others down the stairs with it. It didn't deter all of them, but it would hold them off long enough. A thump nearby pulled her attention to Jesse, who had jumped towards the wall and kicked out to knock a zombie right over the side of the stairs.

They ran up about a floor before pulling to a halt as an arrow shot out, lodging in the stair just in front of Jesse. Olivia glanced back above them, spotting two skeletons standing there, bows raised. Suddenly, a stream of lava started down the wall, landing squarely on one of the skeletons and set the stairs on fire. The lava got past the stairs easily and continued, landing on a zombie and setting the stairs on fire a turn below them.

"Hah!" Axel grinned, watching the mobs fall. "The lava took them out!"

"... And there go the stairs," Olivia responded, watching as the fire started both downwards to the rest of the zombies and up towards them.

"We need to get out of here _now_!" Jesse shouted over the gurgling of lava, stepping back against the wall to have them pass her. They darted up the stairs, Olivia noting the click above her and the added gurgling of lava as she turned a corner.

"Look out!" Petra shouted behind her, and Olivia looked back in time to watch Jesse slide under a lava flow and run into the wall, regaining her bearings quickly and starting after them. As they ran, the stairs began to burn away, forming holes in the staircase below them. Though, that also meant, much to Olivia's dismay, that the stairs above them were also burning up.

Which, of course, meant that they quickly were stuck with no connected stairs and a gap too big to jump across. She was practically shoved into the wall when Axel pushed onto the corner steps as the staircase beneath his feet burned away, and she pinned herself to the wall as she realized with a jolt that there was no way they could all fit on the one platform.

Jesse was below them, on a separate chunk of stairs that was going to quickly be engulfed in flame. Her heart lurched at this realization, and she quickly began looking around for some way to get her off of there.

"We're trapped!" Axel called down to Jesse, who looked up at him quickly. "Now what?!"

Jesse paused a moment, glancing around briefly. Then, she pointed to the wall beside them, which Olivia immediately realized was covered in vines. "Climb the vines!"

The others wasted no time in following her instruction, Axel instantly grabbing hold of the vines and starting to clamber upwards, Petra right behind him. Jesse jumped easily away from the flaming staircase, snagging the vines before she could fall. Olivia hooked her fingers into the vines and started climbing up after the others.

The climb itself wasn't all that difficult if she were honest, and it wasn't all that long. Her only real issue with it was the worry that she would let go too early one of these times and lose her grip entirely. She seemed alright at the moment, so she kept an eye on her hands as she climbed and glanced at the others.

A hiss rang out, and her attention snapped up to an opening above them. A spider- a _cave_ spider of all things- skittered out of the opening, several more crawling out after it and spreading out above them, quickly taking notice of the group and starting downwards, hissing aggressively. Jesse hesitated in her ascent, as did Petra.

"Cave spiders…" Petra groaned, retrieving her sword easily from its sheath. "Why'd it have to be _cave_ spiders?"

Jesse copied her action and retrieved her own sword. "W-we just need to get past them to get out, so be ready!" Olivia looked up at the spiders, but noted that they didn't seem to see her. She guessed that it was due to her being on a different wall than the others, and decided to simply keep an eye on the others. They seemed to be handling themselves well enough; Jesse knocked away a cave spider, which Petra shifted away from before it could land on her, knocking away another spider in the process. One got too close to Axel, and he didn't hesitate to punch it right off of the wall and into the lava below.

The low thudding that started up above them caught her attention, making her realize they were almost out. The thudding, however, was the floor in the indent beginning to close. And that meant, unless they all managed to go at a superhuman speed out of nowhere, they would be stuck down there. With tons of monsters. And literally no way to get through the floor.

"The tunnel's closing!" Petra called from just below her. "What do we do?!"

"Hold on!" Jesse, without warning, suddenly flung her sword upwards, and it spun through the air before catching in the door, holding it open just wide enough for them to escape.

How Jesse knew that would work, Olivia would never know. But now wasn't the time to question it.

"I can't believe I just saw that; that was _amazing_!" Axel cheered as he continued to climb upwards. "Why is no one freaking out?"

"Freak out on the inside, Axel," Petra tried to shift her sword in her hand to get a better grip. "We gotta move!"

She followed Petra through the opening, hauling herself up and out of the warm chamber and backing up so Jesse could get out. As Jesse pulled herself up from the opening, she smiled slightly.

"This is starting to become my lucky sword-" Olivia pulled herself out of the pit and onto the walkway of the floor as Jesse cut herself off, causing her to glance back at her. "Oh no…!" Olivia couldn't see what it was that had made Jesse cut off, but the other began tugging harder on her sword's handle to try and dislodge it. It took a lot less time than she would have expected; Within about ten seconds, Jesse's sword slipped free, sending Jesse onto her back, the sword in hand and the floor lurching shut on a spider. As a puff of white smoke clouded up from where the spider had been crushed, Axel quickly hopped back into the pit and held a hand out to her.

"C'mon, dude, let's get out of here!" He shot her a lopsided grin, which she returned with a small grin and took ahold of his hand. He pulled her easily to her feet, and she quickly sheathed her sword, before she turned and pulled herself out of the pit, Axel close behind. She turned and trot over to Olivia and Petra, shooting them a mild grin as she passed them. They glanced at each other, then followed her lead and jogged out of the temple, easily descending the stairs and stopping in the clearing.

They all had to take a few additional steps to fully stop, and as they did, Axel pushed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "I tell you guys, doing that never gets old! Whoo!"

Petra placed her hands on her hips, a smile pulling at her lips as she glanced at Olivia. "Yeah, not too bad," she agreed, mildly out of breath. "Killing a bunch of monsters, getting sweet treasure…"

Axel straightened up. "Like that flint and steel thing! You've gotta try that again!"

Olivia nodded in agreement, lifting a hand. "I'd be curious to see it again, too. I'm dying to know how it works!" She placed her hand on her hip as Jesse turned and glanced at her, flint and steel already in her hands. She looked down and examined the tools for a moment, then shrugged mildly.

"I'm good. You can give it a shot if you want, though, Axel." She grinned slightly at Axel, who had a wide grin of his own already, and placed the two tools together in one hand.

"Oohohohoo…!" Axel quickly walked up to her, taking the offered tool and looking around. He spotted a stump nearby, his grin growing wider as he approached it. Olivia followed him over to it, as did the others. He pushed the tools together as Jesse slipped in between Olivia and Petra, causing Petra to step aside a bit to give her room. Axel glanced at them, giving one more grin, then flicking his wrist.

Instantly, a blue pillar of flame erupted from the stump. They all stepped back, staring at the top of the flames in surprise and wonder at how tall it had gotten. Axel took two steps back, grinning wider than he had been.

The flames didn't last for more than three seconds, dying off in an instant leaving no trace of the stump behind. Olivia shared a wide-eyed glance with Petra, who looked just as amazed as she felt.

"Well well." Her amazement dissipated in an instant at a voice from near the entrance to the temple, and she didn't even need to look over to know who it was. "Where'd you get the new toy?"

She looked over as Aiden hopped off of the steps, pulling his sword from its position as a sort of cane to shift it in his hand and sheathe it as he approached. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him as Axel slowly passed the flint and steel. "Looks, ah, a bit _sophisticated_ for you lot, wouldn't you say?"

"Order of the Losers." A snide voice sounded behind her, and Olivia glanced back to see Maya approaching from the shadows. Gill was approaching as well of to another side.

"Yeah. Losers." He grinned. Axel stepped back into line with the rest of them as Jesse pocketed her tool, shifting her weight as she did. Aiden, Maya, and Gill lined up across from them, Aiden a step ahead of them. Jesse moved a step forwards to be level with him, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

Olivia rolled her eyes in annoyance at the group across from them. "Ugh, who let you guys out of your cave?"

Maya made a face, rolling her own eyes. "Jokes on you, we don't live in a cave."

Jesse folded her arms firmly, glaring at Aiden. "What do you want?"

Aiden scoffed. "What? Not happy to see me?" Olivia noted the irritated sigh from Petra. "You aren't exactly hard to track down these days, you know. Now that you're out of that shitty treehouse you called home back in the day." Jesse scowled at him, clearly offended.

"So what're you _Ocelots_ doing here, anyways?" Olivia placed a hand on her hip. Aiden glared at her, while Jesse merely glanced back.

"The Ocelots were Lukas' gang." He took on a small smirk, a laugh escaping him. "We ditched that name just like we ditched him."

Maya grinned. "Yeah, we rebranded!" She turned, pulling her long hair easily out of the way of her jacket's back, hooking it over her shoulder. "We're the Blaze Rods now." She grinned, glancing back at them.

"Blaze Rods!" Gill grinned, doing a very slight pose and shaking his hands slightly as if attempting a tiny version of jazz hands.

Aiden glared back at him. "Shut up, Gill," he hissed. Gill instantly deflated, catching Olivia off guard.

"Sorry, boss." Gill rubbed an arm. Olivia's brows furrowed at just how quickly he had listened, considering how close they had been before. Especially after they had been reunited after everything. Gill had plowed Aiden clean over when they'd seen each other, and the Ocelots had been practically inseparable. she couldn't quite understand what had caused them to up and drop Lukas from the team.

Petra hummed mildly, pulling Olivia's attention back to the task at hand. "I don't know, I liked Ocelots better, personally."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "Y-yeah, I'd have to agree with her there."

Gill seemed to perk up a bit at that. "That's what I said."

Aiden sent another withering glare at him, and he deflated again. Aiden rolled his eyes, then turned and began to pace around. Jesse watched him warily. "Where's Lukas, huh? The second the Order decided _you_ were cool-"

"For whatever reason-" Maya interjected.

"- He wouldn't stop sniffing around you like a tamed dog." He stopped pacing, turning to face Jesse again. She turned to meet him, and Olivia stepped around to still be behind her, though she was a bit closer than before.

"You take that back!" Petra snapped, fists clenching.

Aiden hummed. "Mm… No." Olivia glared at him.

"Hey, Lukas is ten _times_ the guy you are!" Petra looked about ready to sock him then and there. If Olivia was honest, she wouldn't complain if she did.

"Yeah, Lukas is a hero. Which is more than I can say for you." Jesse folded her arms firmly, though Olivia noted a very slight waver in her voice as she spoke.

Aiden rolled his eyes. "You probably think that thing makes you _so_ special! Classic Jesse." His teasing tone dropped to a startling amount of irritation. "You always take the _best_ stuff and never let _anyone_ else get a chance! That should've been _ours_!" He jabbed a thumb at his chest.

Axel placed his hands on his hips. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Maya responded in a mocking tone.

There was a bit of a pause, before Gill lifted his hands slightly. "Blaze Rods…!" Aiden glared at him again, and he flinched.

"We earned this, alright?" Jesse placed her hands on her hips. "Fair and square."

"Hey, we had to fight of monsters, lava, and levers to get this thing!" Axel clenched his fists. "We ain't giving it up!"

Aiden scoffed. " _Nothing_ you've done has ever been 'fair and square,' Jesse." He glared at her, a moment of silence drifting over them. Suddenly, Aiden started to shake ever so slightly, before he reached back and grabbed his sword, pointing it right at Jesse, who leaned back in surprise, eyes widening. His teammates followed suit. "Hand over the flint and steel, Jesse! Don't make me ask again!"

Olivia found herself more stunned than anything else. Aiden had gone from seemingly collected to drawing his weapon, something that wasn't usually a normal occurrence. He seemed off; she couldn't place what it was. Whatever it was that had him so angry, though, was scary to her. She knew for a fact that Jesse was going to avoid confrontation unless she needed to do otherwise, and she was sort of thankful for that. She didn't really want to take him on.

"You don't get that one!" Aiden hissed, drawing her attention back. "It's supposed to be _mine_!"

Axel groaned. "I'm tired of listening to your jaw flap!" He suddenly started towards Aiden in a run, catching everyone else off guard.

What caught them more off guard, though, was when Aiden suddenly lifted a foot, kicking out and slamming the sole of his boot into Axel's stomach, sending him clean off his feet and onto his back. Aiden didn't even stumble, simply planting his foot on the ground again.

Petra was the one to start it, pulling her weapon out and pointing it at Aiden. Jesse followed suit, and Olivia retrieved her bow and an arrow, pulling back and aiming at Maya within a second. Maya gasped slightly, eyes widening almost nervously. Olivia spared a glance over to Axel, who was pushing to his feet, shaking his head for a second before lifting his fists.

Maya and Gill began to back away behind Aiden, but Aiden simply scanned them over. Then, he scoffed. "Some hero you are, Jesse." He scanned them over again, anger rising in his eyes. He growled. "Fine." He sheathed his weapon, his teammates following suit. Jesse followed as well, sheathing her own weapon and spurring Petra and Olivia to do the same. "What hope do we have when 'heroes' like you are throwing your weight around like this?" His eyes narrowed. "It's not always gonna be this way, though." He turned away, glancing at Maya. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

As they began to walk off, Olivia glaring at them as they did, Gill allowed himself to do a bit more obvious version of the pose he had done before. "Blaze Rods!" He cheered, putting his hands up above his head this time.

Without warning, Aiden turned around and shoved Gill hard, knocking him right off of his feet. "I told you to _shut up_!" He snapped, then turned and started after Maya, who hadn't even turned to watch. Gill scrambled to his feet, rubbing his torso where Aiden had shoved him and following after him. "Look out, Jesse." Aiden called over his shoulder.

Olivia hadn't even realized she had tensed at the scene until she lost sight of them, when she relaxed again. "I don't remember him being _that_ angry before…" she mumbled. Jesse slowly relaxed her own shoulders, not pulling her eyes from where they had disappeared.

"Yeah… I-I have a bad feeling from them. Something's up." Jesse folded her arms carefully, gripping her arms.

"Yeah, there's definitely something up with him." Petra nodded once, placing her hands on her hips. "He seems different. Scarier."

"Man…" Axel glanced at Jesse. "And all because he wanted that flint and steel. What're you gonna do with it?"

Olivia placed a hand on her hip thoughtfully as Petra spoke up. "Ivor's the one who told us about this place. Maybe he can tell us about that, too."

Jesse nodded. "Yeah, I'll ask Ivor about it when we get back." Olivia shrugged lightly, and Jesse began leading the way back to camp. Before it was too far, Olivia shot a glance over her shoulder at the temple again, taking in its exterior for a second before following after the others.

* * *

 **AN: hECK i thought this chapter was gonna end up kinda short but then it ended up rEALLY LONG OOPS**

 **also sorry for the wait, there was school then a trip, then moving... lost of stuff.**

 **also also im _so ready for season 2 you guys holy shit_**

 **until next time!**


	4. Separate

Olivia walked along just far enough back to not be right next to Jesse. They had been walking since dawn, packing the camp quickly enough and travelling along at a decent pace. Most of their travel had been under the cover of the canopy of a forest or, in the case of the start of their journey, the jungle.

It had taken about half of a day to get back to Taivas, so they had managed to avoid the hot midday sun by moving through the forest. It was probably about three in the afternoon when the gates were visible again, and it wasn't until then that Jesse, who had been oddly quiet for the past few hours, spoke up.

"We're almost back," she pointed out softly. Olivia looked up to the gates, letting out a little sigh of relief.

"Finally starting to recognize stuff again," Axel nodded. "It's good to almost be home."

Petra turned and grinned at him. "Cheers to that, friend."

"I just can't shake what Aiden was saying about us back there." Olivia kept her eyes on the gates. "We do get a lot of treasure. And, I guess… sometimes we might throw our weight around."

"What? No!" Axel's response was immediate. Olivia glanced back at him. "Aiden's got a bad case of treasure envy, pure and simple."

Olivia looked back to the path, folding her arms. "I don't know…"

Jesse shrugged mildly. "I mean… they're both valid points." Olivia blinked and glanced at her. "We do tend to get a lot of treasure and we might throw our weight around a bit, but that didn't make what Aiden did okay." She shrugged again. "I-I mean, he _did_ try to attack us and he kicked Axel… Even if we could handle ourselves, attacking other people is usually frowned upon."

"Yeah, you've got a point there." Petra nodded lightly. As she did, the gates to the town suddenly clicked, and began to open. They opened just wide enough for them to pass through as they reached it, and they passed through with little trouble.

Despite only being absent for a couple of days, and not even a full forty-eight hours at that, Olivia spotted a handful of things off in the distance that she didn't recognize. A few buildings had been added onto or put in a few streets over, and a handful of people were wandering about that Olivia knew hadn't been there before.

Well, she thought they hadn't been, but she couldn't say for sure.

As they entered the town, passing by the memorial they had built for Reuben(Olivia noted Jesse's hesitation, and the fact that she wouldn't look at it.), Petra began to tug on her helmet, a grin starting to form. "Well, no matter what Aiden thinks, there's one thing I know."

Jesse blinked, glancing over at her as Petra hooked her helmet on the strap of her pack. "What's that?"

Petra grinned wider, gesturing to something ahead of them. " _They_ think we're awesome."

Right as she finished speaking, a short, high-pitched squeal sounded where she had pointed, and Olivia's gaze snapped over to find two people, a man and a woman, standing near one of the shops and bouncing on their toes, hands clasped together in front of their mouths as they grinned. Olivia wasn't sure who has squealed.

"They're back!" The man cheered. "You guys, they're back!"

The woman turned, throwing her hands out. "Run! Tell everyone that our heroes have returned!" The man nodded rapidly, then turned and darted away.

Olivia barely caught the quiet, shaky sigh from Jesse over her own tired sigh.

This didn't happen _every_ time they left town, but it happened whenever they left for most or all of a day or more. People would crowd around them, barely enough space for them to pass through. It was less likely if they returned at night or very early in the morning, so they usually aimed for those times if they were very tired.

Olivia knew, though, that most of them really only ran out to see Jesse. Jesse was the leader, after all; she was the one that actually took the Wither Storms down. She was the most popular of the group with fans, and while Olivia didn't mind the lack of attention focused on her, it was a little disheartening at times. Not always, and it was definitely becoming less apparent, but occasionally.

She mentally noted the memory of Jesse saying she'd swap places with her in a heartbeat if it meant less attention focused on her.

Her train of thought was cut off by a distant rumble. Olivia glanced down the road, immediately spotting the crowd of people running at full speed towards them. She took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly, before doing her best to not look as tired or as uncomfortable as she felt.

They were surrounded within seconds, a slightly wider path than normal leading down the road. People on all sides were cheering, spouting random things like whose armor they liked best or other things to try and get their attention. Olivia tended to tune most of it out, considering if she didn't, she'd likely be deaf by now with how loud people got when they _did_ acknowledge them.

And, honestly, she just wanted to sit down.

"Yep!" Axel suddenly pushed forwards, nearly knocking Jesse over as he pulled his helmet off. "The New Order of the Stone is back in town!" The crowd cheered louder as Jesse caught her balance, running her hands down her front and sending Axel a look. He didn't seem to notice.

Jesse started to move forwards, and they all began to follow her lead. Olivia did her best not to flinch away from a scream practically in her ear, trying to smile as she passed an over-excited fan that was waving vigorously at her. It seemed to work, as the fan danced from foot to foot as she passed.

"I tell ya," Petra spoke up, glancing at Jesse, "it never gets old having people excited to see you."

If Jesse was going to respond, she was cut off by an abnormally loud scream, followed by a "love you guys!" from the back of the crowd.

She noticed Jesse stop momentarily, before warily lifting a hand. A fan- the woman from before- had jumped into her path, holding her hand up expectantly. Jesse gave the awaited high-five, smiling only enough to pass off her obvious nervousness as fatigue. The woman grinned widely, before practically diving aside and immediately beginning to pretty much yell at the man that had run off. She turned and waved at Jesse as they passed, and Jesse carefully waved back.

Olivia flinched as the woman collapsed on the spot.

They continued moving forwards, carefully returning grins and waves as they passed them. They were nearly to the end of the line when another scream rang out. Except this particular scream caught their attention, as it sounded more like someone being attacked than it did someone cheering in excitement. Olivia turned and looked in the direction it had come from, finding an odd build on a patch of grass just in front of the Order Hall.

The build was what looked to be a skull with tentacles coming from the bottom, holding it up in midair. It was practically dripping with vines, lapis blocks scattered around. And, to tie it together- she assumed that's what the creator was going for- the skull had a fountain of lava coming out of its "mouth." The thing was surrounded by people, and Olivia noted two of them running away down the road, one of them holding their arm and the other trying to help them along. She guessed they'd gotten burned by it.

"That wasn't a 'happy to see us' scream," Olivia commented slowly. They turned to look at the build from where they were, Jesse examining the crowd warily, Axel grinning wide enough his face could split, and Petra seemed to glare at the thing.

"Wow," she said flatly, "that's new." Olivia nodded, placing her hands on her hips. "It somehow manages to evoke skulls _and_ tentacles," Petra commented, seeming a little more curious of the build.

"While still doing the whole 'barfing lava' thing," Olivia added, grimacing slightly. "Eesh."

"I dunno, I think it's kinda cool looking," Axel piped up, glancing at her. "Plus it'll keep people warm at night."

Olivia gave him a flat look, quirking an eyebrow in an unimpressed manner. "Yes. Setting people on fire tends to do that."

Jesse seemed like she was going to give her own opinion, when a very familiar voice rang out from the build. "Not my fault!" It almost seemed to be towards the still-retreating figures.

"Look out!" One of the citizens cried out.

"Help!" Another shouted.

Jesse glanced back at them, then turned and hurried towards the crowd. Olivia, as well as Petra and Axel, were right behind her. They stopped again at the edge of the crowd, and as they did, the familiar voice spoke up again.

"Oh stop your whining! What are your pathetic injuries in comparison to my majestic tower?" As he spoke, Ivor appeared over the edge of one of the skull's eyeholes. He glared down at a woman nearby.

Jesse straightened a bit from her defensive position. "Ivor?"

Petra sighed, placing her hands on her hips irritably. "Of course."

Ivor spotted them. "Oh, Jesse! You're back!" H grinned briefly, but that fell as he copied petra's motion. "Don't listen to a word these fools tell you!"

"It's a _fire_ hazard!" A woman cut in; Olivia recognized her as the event organizer that was usually on the main road.

"And you're face is an _ugly_ hazard!" Ivor retorted. "So I suppose we're even!"

Jesse stepped forwards, lightly rubbing an arm. "Ivor, wh-what is this structure supposed to be?"

Ivor grinned. "It's my new house! And also… um… my gift to the community!" Olivia sighed disbelievingly at that. "If anyone's short on lava, this is the place to get more! Ha-hah!" He grinned, though the people around them were beginning to boo. "You're welcome!" Jesse narrowed her eyes a bit, folding her arms. "Jesse, all I wanted was what any man wants; a little house of my own! With loads of lava pouring off of it!" Olivia rolled her eyes, then followed Axel, who was headed straight for the lava.

"Ivor, I know you mean well, but your 'house' wants to _kill_ people!" Petra snapped as mildly as she could manage at him.

Axel grinned, kneeling next to the lava. "Dude, you made a killer house!" Olivia watched the lava, placing a hand on her hip as she did.

"Exactly! _Killer_!" The event woman snapped.

"Shut up," Ivor retorted.

In her peripheral vision, Olivia could see a large gloved hand slowly inching towards the lava. Without really paying attention, she stepped closer to Axel, hand swinging out and smacking the side of his head before lowering to her side. Axel grunted and flinched away from her, as well as the lava. She didn't bother to check and see if he was looking at her, simply continuing to watch the lava as she wondered how long it would take to clean it all up.

"Well?" The woman demanded. "We have to tear it down! We can't let that monstrosity stand!"

Olivia turned around just in time to see Ivor hop down and land, immediately daring towards Jesse and grabbing her by the arms. "It's my house, Jesse! I have just as much right to build something as these people, don't I?" He released her, pushing his hands together pleadingly. Jesse blinked at him, the confliction flashing through her gaze evident even from a distance.

It took her a long moment to respond, long enough that Petra seemed about ready to jump in and take the situation over, but Jesse finally spoke up before she could. "You can keep your house."

"Ha- _hah_! Yes!" Ivor's hands shot up, and Petra looked at Jesse like she was crazy. Axel gained a wide, excited grin, and olivia quirked an eyebrow at him, though he didn't seem to notice. People around them began to boo, but everything paused as she warily lifted a hand.

"B-but you have to get rid of the lava. It's too dangerous, just like that fountain in the park would have been," she added softly. "I-if you really want something pouring out of your house, you could use water." Axel's smile fell right off of his face.

Ivor deflated a bit, then slumped. "Can I keep lava in my house, at least?"

"So long as it stays in there." Petra folded her arms. Ivor sighed.

"Alright, fine." He sighed again, and people began to disperse. Ivor finally straightened, placing his hands on his hips as he looked at Jesse again. "Well, I haven't seen you all in a while. What can I do for you?"

"Jesse found some weird flint and steel thing in that temple you told us about," Olivia piped up as she approached them again, Axel just behind her. Ivor glanced back at her, eyes widening before he whipped around to face Jesse again.

"What?" His voice dropped and he inched a little closer to her. "You did?" Jesse nodded slowly, taking a step back. Ivor suddenly straightened and turned slightly, laughing mildly and elbowing Jesse. He had aimed for her arm, that was pretty obvious, but misjudged how far over he was and caught her in the stomach instead, albeit lightly. Jesse recoiled and moved a hand to block any other attempts. "Hah, yes, great to see you again! Let's do lunch! I'll bring the carrots!" Jesse gave him an odd, confused look. He suddenly turned and grabbed Jesse by the shoulders, speaking just above a whisper. "There's no telling who's listening. Meet me in the Treasure Room. Ten minutes." His voice suddenly raised, and he started shaking Jesse by the shoulders. "And bring the thing you found!" With that, he turned and walked quickly away.

Petra pat a now-trembling Jesse on the back as he retreated. Olivia turned and started to call after him about the lava, but sighed instead. "Y'know what? We aren't going to get him to clean this up anytime soon." Jesse straightened, and Olivia placed her hands on her hips. "Axel and I can clean the lava up while you two go meet with Ivor."

"Aw, man, do we have to?" Axel almost whined. Olivia glanced at him, and any argument he had dissolved. "Fine…"

Jesse blinked. "Are you sure? You don't have to, you know."

Olivia shrugged. "Might as well. We'll catch up with you once we're done, okay?"

Jesse hesitated, then nodded. "Alright. Don't burn yourselves, though."

Olivia smiled lightly. "We won't." Jesse nodded at that, then turned and started towards the Order Hall, Petra following behind her. The redhead glanced back and waved at them.

"See ya, guys!" Olivia waved back at her.

As they walked off, Olivia turned to Axel. "So we're going to need buckets for this. Do you have any iron?"

Axel hummed thoughtfully, patting his pockets for a moment. He then made a face. "Aw, man, no, I'm fresh out."

"Oh-kay…" Olivia sighed, placing her hands on her hips again. "I guess we'll have to mine some more. C'mon."

They started towards the main road again. The mines were out of town a ways; they had passed it about ten minutes prior to actually arriving in town. Olivia remembered, now that she thought about it, that she hadn't seen any miners there. They must have been inside.

"Why do we have to take the lava out?" Axel spoke up as they passed the memorial and exited town again. "The lava's the coolest part of that house!"

"Someone could get burned, it could start a fire, there are a number of reasons it's dangerous to keep it." Olivia shrugged mildly.

Axel made a face. "We could put glass around it to keep it from spreading, and people can just stay away from it." He folded his arms. "There are plenty of reasons to keep it."

"Axel, someone's already gotten burned by the thing." Olivia sighed, shaking her head slightly. "It's not a matter of avoiding it. Someone could still get hurt." Noting Axel's pout, she added, "if you want to change it, you'll have to take it up with Jesse. It wasn't my decision."

"Fine…" Axel sighed disappointedly. "I guess Taivas isn't a good place for a bunch of destructive stuff. It's no Boom Town, that's for sure."

"No. No it's not." Olivia agreed lightly.

It didn't take them long to spot the entrance to the mines. The set of stairs was accompanied by a building, and a station filled with chests for things like tools and explosives. The building, from what she understood, was mostly for resting during miners' breaks and counting materials they'd gotten that day, as well as smelting any ores they had gotten for their materials. She'd never been in there herself, so she mostly just assumed this.

They approached the station, Olivia digging out a pair of pickaxes and passing one to Axel. They were both battered, and would likely last only just long enough to get them the iron they needed. She also snagged a handful of torches, passing them to Axel before grabbing another handful to have on hand herself. It should be enough to get the iron ore they need and leave again without it being too horridly dim.

And, if she miscalculated, they could just come back up and get more.

"Ready?" She stood up, glancing at Axel as she spoke. He shot a lopsided grin her way and nodded.

"Sure am." With that, they descended the steps into the mines.

The stairs lead to a small wooden room, which had a door leading to the mines themselves. The mines were already dimly lit in the main tunnel by several torches and a couple of redstone lamps. Tunnels branched off from that, enshrouded in darkness almost instantly.

Besides that, the mines were mysteriously empty, and Olivia knew that the building up on the surface wasn't being used either. So it was a little- okay, a lot- eerily silent in the mines.

"Does it seem a little… empty to you?" She glanced up at Axel. He nodded slowly.

"Yeah… There wasn't a sign or anything outside saying they were closed, though." He shrugged. "Maybe they got a day off?"

"On a Tuesday?" Olivia furrowed her brows. "That seems a little odd… And if they had a day off, the mines would have been closed."

Axel thought about her statement for a moment, then shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, does it? We just need some iron." He started forwards, causing Olivia to blink at him, then hurry forwards a few steps to catch up with him.

They wandered down the main tunnel, watching the splitting tunnels for one they thought would have the iron they wanted. Olivia hesitated at one towards the middle of the tunnel, scanning it silently before turning to Axel. "How about this one?"

Axel turned and scanned it, then shrugged. "Let's give it a shot."

Olivia nodded, retrieving a torch and lighting it with one on the wall before leading the way into the tunnel, Axel just behind her. They were engulfed in darkness quickly, but they did manage to find a vein of iron after a several minutes of walking. They shared a look, then got to work. They mined out a short tunnel branching off of the tunnel they had gone down, but they weren't getting much, and Olivia was pretty sure they would need to be there a while longer to get enough. Most of their work had been clearing out surrounding stone to actually reach the iron ores so far, so they'd definitely be there a long while if that kept up. It was a little while after they had started that their quiet working focus was broken by Axel.

"Shit!" Olivia looked over just in time to watch Axel's pickaxe dissolve in his hands. "Dang. That was more broken than it looked."

Olivia shrugged, taking another swing at the ore she was trying to break. "Guess so." Axel leaned back against the wall. "I'd tell you to go and get another, but you're not really supposed to go mining alone. Y'know, unless you're like Petra."

"Yeah. Maybe we'll be lucky and yours will last long enough to get the rest." He shrugged.

"Don't jinx it," Olivia joked flatly.

"What? Yours is lasting-" Axel slapped his hand against the wall- "against all of this stone."

Right as he finished, the pickaxe in Olivia's hands splintered and dissolved into white smoke as she broke a piece of ore away. "Oh, man-!" She sighed, shaking her hand out lightly. "Of course…"

Axel snorted. "Well, at least we can get more. C'mon." He started towards the tunnel, and Olivia followed close behind. They turned into the tunnel they had started theirs in, and moved towards the main tunnel. "Maybe this time we can-"

He was cut off by a sudden lurching rumble, and Olivia automatically threw her hands out for balance. "What the hell?!"

Axel had put a hand to the wall, and was watching the ceiling. After a moment, he glanced at her. "We need to get out of here. I don't like what I'm hearing."

"Me neither; let's go," Olivia said quickly as she passed him, starting to jog towards the main tunnel. She would have run, but the tunnel's rumbling was getting worse.

They were nearly there when Axel suddenly lurched to a stop behind her. "Wait!" Olivia froze in place, looking back at him. He gestured vaguely and simply shouted " _move_!"

Olivia followed his gestures and looked up just in time to watch the ceiling above her crumble.

* * *

 **AN: heck? heck.**

 **i preordered s2 and it comes out tomorrow hhdjfhsdf im so hype**

 **until next time!**


	5. Trapped

Olivia liked the rain. Not necessarily being _in_ the rain, but the sound of it. It usually gave her an excuse to stay inside.

This was one of those times.

Admittedly, she had gone out into the rain only to move over to Jesse's treehouse, but beyond that, she had been inside since she'd woken up. Jesse was sitting on a chest by the Southern window, leaning her chin on her arms, which were resting on the windowsill. Reuben was on one of his little rugs that Jesse kept scattered around the room- the one on a small shelf high enough that he could rest his chin on the windowsill as well. Olivia was sitting at the table across the room from her, book resting on the table in front of her. One of the handful of books that Jesse had that couldn't hold her interest due to just how complicated it was; Olivia could read it fine, though it was somewhat boring, admittedly.

Olivia's attention was pulled to Jesse as the other sat up, stretching her arms out. She glanced back at Olivia as she shook her hands out mildly.

"How's the book?" Jesse tilted her head slightly as she spoke.

Olivia shrugged. "Alright. Not the most interesting thing I've ever read." Jesse hummed mildly.

"I mean, at least you can read it. I was debating on getting rid of it; I can't really read it with how complicated it can get." Jesse shrugged as she spoke. Olivia copied her motion mildly, turning her page.

The thing was about some world full of magic and dragons- a common theme for fantasy books, Olivia had noted several times- and revolved around a single woman who was of an importance she didn't fully understand. They kept looking for other characters or learning about something new, and Olivia lost track of the plot more than once.

"How do you think Axel's holding up with the rain?" Olivia looked at Jesse again.

"I dunno. He could be out in it for all we know." She shrugged. "He doesn't have a whole lot to do inside anyways."

Olivia started to look back to her book, catching sight of her arms as she did. They were clear, unmarked besides a few freckles. She almost began to think nothing of it and go back to reading, but she suddenly froze in realization. Olivia looked at her arms again; they were supposed to look mottled, scarred from the Withersickness. But they weren't. She looked up at the window, then at Jesse again. Then, she looked at Reuben, who was still looking out at the rain.

This wasn't right.

"Jesse," she forced herself to pipe up. The brunette glanced back at her, blinking. "What's going on?"

Jesse watched her for a moment, then furrowed her brows slightly. "What do you mean?"

"This isn't right. This treehouse was destroyed; we went looking for it and only found rubble!" She looked to Jesse. "M-my arms aren't supposed to look so clear anymore. A-and the scar on your nose from that spider is gone? And Reuben-" she bit her tongue. Jesse blinked, reaching up and touching the bridge of her nose briefly, before glancing at Reuben, who had perked up at the sound of his name. Jesse and Reuben shared a confused look, before they both looked at Olivia.

"... Did… did you have a-a bad dream or something?" Jesse's brows knit together in concern, and Olivia gripped her book.

"N-no, I'm serious. We're supposed to be in Taivas. This is not supposed to be here. _We're_ not supposed to be here." Her hands shook a bit from her tight grip, and she relaxed slightly to subdue it. Jesse watched her for a long moment, then shared another glance with Reuben, who looked about as concerned as a pig physically could.

Jesse then stood up, brushing off her front. "Yeah, you're right. I was kinda wondering how long it'd take you to notice." Olivia blinked in surprise as Jesse looked up at her again, offering a smile.

"You're dreaming, remember?"

Olivia blinked once, and found herself staring at a barely lit cave ceiling.

She was reeling a bit. What had just happened? She must've been dreaming, but that was an oddly realistic dream to be just that. Maybe she'd hit her head?

What was even going on again?

Oh, right. The cave-in. She sighed.

They'd gotten stuck in a mining tunnel while trying to get iron. They'd been going to get more pickaxes when the roof had collapsed. They'd just been following their spontaneous plan. _That_ wasn't part of the plan. Then again, most plans don't involve getting trapped in a cave.

Olivia hurt, to say the least. But she should have expected that, considering there had been a cave-in. Her head pounded, and she was pretty sure her hand was trapped under something, since she couldn't move one arm. That, or it was broken. She didn't know yet.

That was one upside of not being able to feel anything on most of both of her arms; if it was injured, she couldn't feel the pain that came with injury.

Her other arm, she assumed, was fine, as she could move it to push against her head. And based on the fact that she could move her fingers, it wasn't broken. She sighed, inadvertently letting out a groan in the process, and tried to open her eyes. It took more effort than she would have liked, but she managed the feat, and blinked a few times to adjust to the dim light and clear her blurry vision.

She was near where the cave-in had happened. And by near, she meant she was literally right next to it. If she were a foot to the right, she'd be under it. There was a torch somewhere nearby- was that there already? She couldn't remember; if it wasn't, then maybe Axel had managed to light one at some point before the cave collapsed- and it produced enough light for her to see her arm- the one on her face, at least- was almost unscathed. It was smudged in dirt and there was a thin scratch on the back of her fingers, running across her index, middle, and ring fingers. She glanced over enough to spot that her other arm was indeed stuck under the rubble.

She shifted, attempting to pull it out. It moved a little, but the rocks shifted, and she froze. The last thing she wanted was the cave-in to cave in again; she gently tugged on her arm, managing to shift it a little bit without disturbing the rocks. She tried again, managing the same feat. With a mild sigh, she repeated the process a number of times, until she managed to free her arm. A couple of pebbles clattered down, but no other rocks shifted.

She examined her right arm now that she could see it. It seemed fine, though it took her a second to notice the fact that her hand was discolored, and a decent half of her lower arm- including her fingers- was swollen. That wasn't a good sign; she'd have to wrap it later, once she and Axel got out of there.

Wait a minute- she tensed.

Axel. Where was Axel?

He wasn't in sight, at least not in enough light to easily spot. She glanced warily at the pile of rocks beside her, silently hoping like crazy that she wouldn't have to dig him out. He could take a lot, but a pile of rocks would absolutely be too much for even him to handle.

"Axel?" Her voice echoed off of the cave walls. She waited; no response. "Axel?!"

Something echoed from further into the tunnel; it was far enough that she couldn't make out what it was.

"Axel, are you down there? I swear to god, if you try anything…" Another echo, this one a little clearer. It started to sound like footsteps. For a second, she was relieved; even if it wasn't Axel, whoever it was could still help her. But that second ended when she realized that the footsteps were oddly uneven and more of a shuffle than anything. She tensed, listening carefully as they got clearer and closer. Then, they stopped.

"Hello-?"

A groan sounded, accompanied almost immediately by a green, unsteady figure coming into the light. A zombie, bearing a stone sword. Which, admittedly, was way more than she had.

"Oh, god, no." She glanced around for something to use; she had the torch sitting on the wall nearby, and she had the pile of rocks. She had her bow and some arrows as well, but there was no way she'd be able to use them one-handed. Thinking quickly, she snatched a rock with her left hand- the one she trusted to be uninjured- and lobbed it right at the zombie's head. The rock smacked into its forehead, causing the zombie's head to jerk backwards and the thing to stop walking. After a second or two, its head righted itself and it started towards her. She tensed further, blindly grabbing for another rock.

That is, until a familiar gloved fist slammed into the side of the zombie's head, sending it flying into the far wall, where it instantly puffed into smoke.

Olivia had to take a second to register that she was no longer in danger, and when she did, Axel was dusting off his hands and peering at the rotten flesh that the zombie had left.

" _There_ you are!" She sounded _way_ more exasperated than she intended, but she didn't bother to fix it as she approached him. He started dusting off his front.

"Nice to see you up, too," he responded casually. "I woke up not long before you did. Decided to see if there were any other tunnels connected to this one."

"Did you find anything?" She asked warily.

He shook his head, and she deflated. "No, this thing's just a straight shot 'till it hits a cave system. We might be able to get out through that somehow, but I didn't check. Needed to come back before you woke up in case trouble found us. Which it did."

Olivia groaned, putting her good hand to her forehead. "Of _course_ our pickaxes broke right before this…" Axel grunted lightly in agreement, and they stood in silence for a few moments. Olivia finally lowered her hand and let out a mild sigh. "Are you hurt?"

Axel, who had folded his arms and taken on a thoughtful look, blinked out of his thoughts and glanced at her, then shrugged.

"Other than a headache and a couple of cuts and bruises, no. My foot was stuck under the rocks when I woke up, but it wasn't strained or anything." He paused momentarily. "You hurt at all?"

Olivia lifted her right hand. "This hand's swollen and probably sprained. Maybe broken, I haven't tested that yet. Other than that and a scratch on my fingers, no."

Axel sighed. "Damn… That hand's gonna be a pain to work around."

"No kidding," Olivia rolled her eyes. "Can't use my bow one-handed. So I'm down a weapon entirely."

Axel grunted roughly, reaching out and pulling the torch off of the wall. As he pulled it back in towards him, Olivia got a good look at his face. He looked as tired as she felt, a bruise on his chin and a nasty cut going from above his left eye to below his right, narrowly missing his right eye as it stretched across the bridge of his nose.

She tried not to flinch. "That's a nasty cut."

He blinked, then lifted his free hand to his face, barely brushing the injury with his fingertips before flinching and pulling his hand away to look at his fingers.

"... Oh." He glanced at her, then at his hand, then back at her. "You've got a scratch yourself. Not that we can do much about it."

Olivia hummed mildly. "Well, the best we _can_ do is just…" she motioned to the end of the tunnel, "go down the tunnel and start looking for our way out."

Axel nodded in agreement, holding the torch out in front of him before starting down the tunnel. Olivia, after a brief hesitant moment taken to pull her glove from her swollen hand and begin to tug her sleeve up, started after him.

She was surprised to find, actually, to find that the tunnel didn't last all that long before breaking into a cave system. The cave they entered was rather large, spacious enough that their footsteps echoed as they entered. There was one entrance, thankfully, into a natural tunnel across the cavern. Axel lifted the torch to look around a bit, then glanced at Olivia and shrugged. With that, they moved across the cavern and into the next tunnel.

"How long do you think it'll take to get out?" Olivia glanced at Axel, then shrugged.

"Hopefully not too long. Could be a few minutes, a few hours, a few _days_ …" She trailed off, stuffing her glove in her pocket. "There's no telling how long it'll take. If we're lucky, more of the tunnels will be connected somewhere and we can get back to the mines."

Axel nodded, shifting the torch into his other hand as they entered another cavern. "Yeah, that'd be lucky. That, or we find some supplies someone left behind and can mine our way out again."

"Yeah, I hope so." Olivia rubbed her arm lightly, watching the cave walls briefly.

If only hoping was enough.

* * *

 **AN: it is literally 2 am as i type this oops**

 **sorry for the delay and sorry it's so short, this chapter was giving me trouble and i was busy.**

 **until next time!**


	6. AN - heck

heyyyy so... tbh at this point im gonna put this on hiatus? bc i cant seem to write anythign rn and my current top priority has changed to rewriting withered. or like. just straight up writing from olivia's perspective without the withersickness idk yet. either way i have things i wanna change in withered and honestly am not proud with the majority of it, so... yeah.

if/when i rewrite withered i will likely rewrite or edit or smth what i have of this before continuing it.

yeah

\- sketch


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